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Peek Inside Tesla’s Robotic Factory

Tesla Motors has kicked off production of the gorgeous Model S into overdrive, cranking out some 400 cars a week on one of the world’s most advanced automotive production lines.

Now, a major automaker in Detroit or Japan can churn out 400 cars a day, and in fact the Tesla Motors plant had a capacity of 6,000 cars a week when Toyota and General Motors ran the place. But Tesla’s numbers are impressive when you consider the Silicon Valley automaker started just a decade ago with a few engineers and mechanics shoving piecemeal components into a rolling chassis made by Lotus.

Tesla got the factory for a song from Toyota in 2010, spent about a year or so setting up tooling and started producing the Model S sedan in mid-2012. The automaker brings in raw materials by the truckload, including the massive rolls of aluminum that are bent, pressed, and formed to create the car. Those lightweight components are assembled by swarm of red robots in an intricate ballet that is mesmerizing to behold.

The bare body is shipped off for prepping and paint before joining the assembly line under the power of autonomous robots. The gleaming shell is ushered through the line as Tesla’s 3,000 workers work alongside their 160 robotic counterparts to install the battery, motor, interior, and miles of cabling and components that help create the award-winning electric sports sedan.

Wired got a behind-the-scenes tour of the 5 million-square-foot factory in Fremont, California to see first-hand how co-founder and CEO Elon Musk is rethinking how cars are built. The process would make Henry Ford double over in envy.